Women Artists Unite
Painters & Scupltors Offer Talents to Suffrage Cause
Abastenia St. Leger Eberle (1878-1942), Little Mother, 1907. Bronze, cast in 1911 by S. Klaber & Co. Founders, NY. Lent by Graham Shay 1857, New York, NY
In the 1910s, Westporters flocked to New York City, as they do today, to see art exhibitions. In 1915, two “blockbusters” helped raise funds for the Votes for Women cause. The first, featuring the paintings of Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt at Knoedler Gallery, was conceived by Louisine Havemeyer, a preeminent collector and suffragist from Greenwich and New York City.
The second, an “Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by Women Artists for the Benefit of the Woman Suffrage Campaign,” opened at MacBeth Gallery just weeks before New York’s ballot on suffrage. Although the state amendment failed to pass, the show was a success. Hundreds came to the opening, and attendance remained strong. Newspapers across the country covered the event, which impressed art critics and drew attention to suffrage issues.
Almost 100 women artists united with the organizers’ suffrage tactic by exhibiting their paintings and sculptures at the Fifth Avenue gallery. An intricate web connected many of them; some had met at summer art colonies, and others through school, clubs, or joint shows.
Of the exhibitors, the four below had Westport connections:
Abastenia St. Leger Eberle, c. 1910s. Courtesy, Ancestry.com.
Abastenia St. Leger Eberle (1878-1942), who settled in Westport by 1930, was one of the six organizers—all female—of the MacBeth show. In 1913, the year her sculpture The White Slave sparked controversy at the Armory Show, Eberle was known as “a most ardent suffragist.” Having studied at the Art Students League and in Europe, she established studios in Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side, locales that allowed her to be close to and observe her prime subject matter, the poor and oppressed. Lillian Wald opened the Henry Street Settlement in 1893 to support these same families after witnessing first-hand the poverty and hardship endured by immigrants on the Lower East Side.
Laura Gardin works on the clay model for the Better Babies medal, created for Woman’s Home Companion magazine, c. 1913. Courtesy, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Laura Gardin (1889-1966) studied at The Art Students League under James Earle Fraser. Upon marrying Fraser in 1914, the couple began buying property in Westport for a studio and home. Among Gardin’s suffragist “credentials” were: her mother, artist Alice Tilton Gardin, who, as a child, had known Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; and her grandparents, Theodore and Elizabeth Tilton, who were abolitionists and early woman’s rights advocates.
Rose O’Neill proudly marched in New York City parades from 1914 to 1918. Here, she carries the “Illustrator” banner leading marchers from her profession. Courtesy, Susan Scott, Bonniebrook Gallery, Museum and Homestead.
Rose O’Neill (1874-1944), who moved to Westport in 1921, was the first female cartoonist at Puck Magazine. Her illustrations depicted themes of women’s empowerment, a trait she employed in her famous Kewpie character, a sculpture that she exhibited at MacBeth. In New York, she was active at National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) headquarters. She donated art to NAWSA postcards and posters, often featuring Kewpies urging “Give Mother the Vote.” On September 14, 2019, O’Neill was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame at Seneca Falls for her contributions as an artist and suffragist.
Lila Audubon Wheelock, 1911. Courtesy, Andrew Dasburg and Grace Mott Johnson Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Lila Audubon Wheelock (1890-1986) studied at The Art Students League under Fraser. In 1919, the sculptor and her illustrator husband, Oscar Howard, bought property on Coleytown Road from the Frasers. Wheelock had spent prior summers at the Cos Cob art colony, where Rose O’Neill had also stayed. In 1920, Wheelock was counted among Westport’s “New Voters” for the upcoming election.
Medallions honoring the cause
Laura Gardin Fraser (1899-1966), Woman’s Home Companion Better Babies Medal, 1913. Bronze, published by Crowell Publishing Co. American Numismatic Society, New York.
Suffrage artists’ maternal subjects were a media message used to demonstrate how voting would empower women to do more for themselves and their families. “Antis” often mocked suffrage activists as ugly, loud and neglectful of family, a political perception problem for pro-suffrage factions. In reality, the Votes for Women movement actually contributed to bringing awareness to improved public health for children and reforms of child labor laws.
EvAngelos Frudakis (1921-2019), Hall of Fame Medal of Lillian D. Wald, 1971. Bronze, cast by Medallic Art Co., NY. Collection of Ann Sheffer.
This medal honoring Lillian Wald was issued by the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at New York University after her 1970 induction. It was the 76th in the series commemorating the work of outstanding Americans. The medal portrays Wald as a young nurse. The reverse side pictures the Henry Street Settlement entryway with children playing on the steps and an immigrant woman and elderly man engaged in conversation. This side also bears the simple legend, “Humanitarian,” and an image of a uniformed visiting nurse approaching the Settlement.
Laura Gardin Fraser (1899-1966), Rosemary Hall 25th Anniversary Medal with a portrait of Caroline Ruutz-Rees (1865-1954), 1915. Bronze, published by Medallic Art Co., NY. Choate Rosemary Hall Archives, Wallingford, CT.
From 1915 to 1977, this medallion was given to a Rosemary Hall student who was elected “Optima,” the highest honor of the school for her outstanding contribution in scholarship, athletics and citizenship. It features conjoined portraits of co-headmistresses Mary Elizabeth Lowndes (1864-1947) and Caroline Ruutz-Rees (foreground), the founding and longest-serving head of school in Rosemary Hall’s history.